


Ruined Date

by Lady_Sci_Fi



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-05-17
Packaged: 2020-03-06 16:13:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18854545
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady_Sci_Fi/pseuds/Lady_Sci_Fi
Summary: A date between Captain Yates and Sergeant Benton takes a bad turn when some people take offense to one of them.





	Ruined Date

 “So, what do you think that thing the Doctor is building will turn out to be?” John Benton asked, leaning forward slightly over his nearly-empty plate.

 “No idea,” Mike Yates smiled, taking a sip of his drink. He took a bite of his food. “But I’m sure it’ll somehow annoy the Brig. Wouldn’t surprise me if that is indeed the point of it.”

 Benton chuckled. “Wouldn’t surprise me, either.”

 Their end of dinner topic went to further discussion of the movie they had seen together before coming to the pub.

 “Another drink?” Mike offered as Benton drained his glass.

 “In a moment. Excuse me, first.” Benton gestured with his head towards the restrooms.

 Mike nodded, and smiled as he watched the sergeant stand and walk away from their table.

 “Absolutely disgusting.”

 Mike barely registered the comment, his attention still on the space Benton had occupied.

 “Real shameful.”

 He assumed the people over a table were talking about their meal. What else could they be talking about? It certainly didn’t concern him.

 “He needs to be taught a lesson.”

 Mike tilted his head at that, but still assumed they were talking about food and the cook. At least, he did until he heard the scrape of three chairs against the floor and saw them approach him.

 “Get up,” one man demanded.

 “Excuse me?” Mike asked in confusion.

 “The way you were looking at your friend just now? Disgusting.”

 “What are you talking about?” Mike’s brows furrowed. He kept calm to not escalate the situation. “If I’ve done something to offend-“

 “Looking all lovey at him. Now get up.”

 Mike had faced more intimidating people than these three men, and stayed in his chair. He even took a swig of his drink. “I’ve got no problem with-“

 The largest of the trio seized him by his collar and hauled him up to his feet. “We’re removing you from the premises. Can’t have you among all these civilized people.”

 Mike gripped one of the man’s wrists and twisted it off his shirt. “I don’t understand what-“ A second man grabbed his arms and forced them behind his back. He struggled. People around them were now staring.

 “We’re going outside,” said the leader. “Don’t want to make a scene, do we?”

 “I’m not the one making a scene,” Mike hissed. Still, he didn’t resist as much as he could have as they took him outside. He really didn’t want to get into a fight inside the pub, and hoped that he could talk them down once alone. He glanced backwards to the restrooms, and grimaced when he didn’t see Benton coming out yet. And no one else seemed to want to help him.

 Despite his earlier protests, Mike definitely knew what this was about. It hadn’t happened to him before, but he supposed there had to be a first time for everything. But he wasn’t sure what he had done to tip them off. From the sound of it, he’d looked too lovingly at Benton as he’d left the table?

 Once out the door, Mike threw his head back, hoping to catch the man behind him in the nose. He heard a swear, and those hands released his arms. He again went for the one holding his shirt’s wrist.

 The one behind him was only incapacitated for a couple seconds, and Mike’s arms were again yanked behind his back.

 “Look, I don’t know what-“ Mike’s gritted his teeth as he was dragged around the corner into the alley beside the pub. “I haven’t done any-“ He broke into a yelp when both men holding him pitched him toward the brick wall. He got his hands in front of his face in time.

 Mike turned, and, with his back against the wall, found himself surrounded with no opening to even try for. “Look, lads-“

 “You are one of those, aren’t you?” the leader said, taking a sip of his full pint that he’d brought with him.

 “One of what?” Mike hoped that if he played dumb, they’d leave him alone.

 “One of those fairies,” another clarified. He looked Mike over. “Certainly look like one, especially with that pretty face.”

 “You can’t go around judging people by how they look, you know.” Mike smiled. “So there’s no need for-“ The contents of the entire glass were thrown in his face. He squeezed his eyes closed for a second, then raised his hand to wipe the beer from around them.

 “I hope we stopped you from putting your nasty hands on your friend in there.”

 “He’s going to miss me,” Mike pointed out, settling for just being able to see now.

 “And we’re doing him a favour.”

 Mike barely got his hands up to defend himself as the first punch came at him. A hard knee to his abdomen drove the air from his lungs, and distracted him enough for the third punch to land. Mike cried out at the blossoming pain on his cheek and side of his nose, and he tried to turn away. He was kicked in the shin, and then punched in the stomach.

 “Consider this a lesson to leave respectable people alone.”

 

 Benton started to return to his table when he realized Mike wasn’t there. He looked to the bar, in case Mike had gone to get them another round of drinks. He didn’t see him there, either. “Mike?” he called out.

 “Your friend’s outside,” a woman near his table informed. “Some guys took offense to him.”

 “What?” Benton rushed out, sparing only a second for anger that no one had thought to stop it or look for him.

 He burst out the door. “Mike?” he called. He didn’t receive a direct answer, instead hearing grunts of effort and pain nearby. Benton rounded the corner, and found his boyfriend on his knees, his face dripping with blood from his nose and something else. One of three men held him up by his short scarf around his neck.

 “Stop this!” Benton demanded, rushing towards the group. They stopped mid-strike and looked to him. “John!” Mike cried, and got a kick to his side.

 “What’s the meaning of this?” Benton demanded. As much as he wanted to tackle them away from Mike, he knew the odds weren’t in his favour.

 “Teaching him a lesson about putting his fairy hands on upstanding members of society.”

 “What?”

 “They think I… I looked at you a little too fondly,” Mike clarified.

 “We’re doing you a favour, mate. His kind shouldn’t be-“ the leader started.

 “You’re not doing anyone a favour.” Benton clenched his fists. “Now let him go before I call the police.”

The trio considered the threat for a tense moment. Any longer, and Benton would’ve hit the leader holding Mike up. “Alright, have it your way. Think we’ve taught him something, at least.” He shoved Mike away and they walked away, heading back inside.

 Benton hurried to Mike and helped him to his feet. “Mike?”

 “I’m alright.” His statement was negated by his wince of pain as he wiped at his nose with the back of his hand. He brought up his scarf to clean his face.

 “Here, let me.” Benton took the end of the scarf to wipe away the blood and what he now recognized as beer. The liquid also dripped down from the front of Mike’s hair.

 “Could’ve… could’ve been worse,” Mike said to comfort both himself and Benton.

 “It’s bad enough now.”

 “I’ll have a few bruises tomorrow, but that’s it.”

 Benton closed his eyes in an attempt to get hold of his anger. “How dare they,” he practically growled. “Just because-“

 “Hey, come on. Let’s… let’s go get our things and pay our bill and go home.” Mike laid his hand over Benton’s still on his scarf, and Benton noticed it’s trembling.

 “Should we call the police?”

 Mike shook his head. “Please?”

 “Alright,” he agreed. He let go of the scarf so Mike could hold it to his nose to stem the trickling blood flow.

 When they went back to their table to grab their jackets, Benton had to bite his tongue to stop himself saying something to the three men nearby. They went to the bar to pay for their meal, and left.

 Mike couldn’t help the shiver at the shout of, “You better have learned your lesson,” to his back.

 ********

 “What happened to you?” the Brigadier asked as Mike and Benton walked into the UNIT HQ lab to meet with him, the Doctor, and Jo the next morning.

 Mike unconsciously raised his hand to the bruising over half of his eye and side of his nose. “Some… some drunks took offense to my face last night.”

 “Oh no!” Jo gasped, rushing to him. “I don’t see what offense they’d take to it. It’s a nice face.”

 Mike couldn’t help the little chuckle. “Thank you, Jo.” He awkwardly cleared his throat. “Pity, it had been a rather pleasant evening until that.”

 “I can imagine,” the Doctor commented. “You are alright?”

 Mike nodded.

 “Did you take it up with police?” Alistair inquired.

 “No, sir. I didn’t think it necessary. Besides, Sergeant Benton was with me, and chased them off before it could get too bad.”

 “It’s true, sir,” Benton spoke.

 “Well,” Alistair breathed. “As long as you’re both alright?”

 Benton and Mike nodded, both of them thinking about how they had simply held each other for a long while when they had gotten to Mike’s place. They hoped it would be their only date ruined by such matters.


End file.
